It was a scientific breakthrough. Persil, introduced by the German company Henkel in 1907 was the world’s first laundry powder. The name derives from perborate and silicate, two key components in...
Did you know that in Vancouver you can wash your hair with soap but in Montreal you need shampoo? Why? Because Vancouver water is soft and Montreal water is hard. That makes a big difference when...
If you have ever taken a good look at the back of a tube of toothpaste during those long two minutes of recommended brushing time, you may have noticed sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) and sodium...
Temperature is just a measure of how quickly, molecules are moving. When a substance dissolves in water, its components, be they ions or molecules, form stronger attractions to water molecules than...
Dousing oneself with a bucket full of ice water isn’t much fun, but at least that craze was cool. It had a point: raise money for ALS research. Biting into a laundry pod has no point, other than to...
As you can imagine, the ad caught my eye. “Earth Smart Laundry CD works on the principles of quantum physics, not chemistry.” I had to have it. So I sent in my sixty dollars and waited. A couple...
Forty eight years ago there was an epidemic of heart failure in Quebec City. The clue was that the thirty men affected were all beer drinkers. In a round about way, the culprit was the introduction...
I remember the first time I ever smelled the fragrance of a skunk. I thought someone had let off a stink bomb. You see, even back then I was a lot more familiar with emissions from test tubes...
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